STORRS, Conn. -
Despite a four-goal effort from M.E. Lapham (Cazenovia, N.Y.), the University of Connecticut women's lacrosse team dropped their home opener 18-8 to cross-state rival UMass at the George J. Sherman Family Sports Complex Saturday.

Lapham accounted for half of the Huskies goals as Jillian Cerar (Massapequa Park, N.Y.) rattled off a hattrick on the day and Lauren Sparks (West Chester, Pa.) notched a goal for the Huskies.

Nine different Minutewomen scored on the day led by a five goal effort by Lauren Terracciano, a four-goal day by Danielle Pelletier and a hattrick by Jess O'Donnell. Terracciano also aided on three goals in the game ending with an impressive eight points.

The Huskies are now 0-1 on the season while UMass improves to 2-1 on the year after taking part in two games already this season.

The Minutewomen jumped out to a two goal lead as Terracciano and Pelletier got UMass on the board early scoring their first goals of the game. The Huskies cut that lead in half when Cerar tallied her first goal of the game with 18:58 left in the first half.

Cerar scored all three of the Huskies first half goals as the Minutewomen went on to add five more goals before the end of the half entering the locker room with a 7-3 halftime lead.

UMass continued their attack in the second half notching another two goals before Sparks recorded her lone goal of the game just under four minutes into the second half. The Huskies rallied off another goal when Lapham nabbed her first goal of the night on a free position opportunity to cut the lead to four.

The Minutewomen scored two straight but UConn would not quit as Lapham took advantage of a man-up situation scoring her second goal of the day. The two teams exchanged the next couple of goals before the Minutewomen went on a four-goal tear to end the game.

UMass took an impressive 38 shots during the game while the Huskies managed 21 of their own. Jenna Moulton (East Rochester, N.Y.) made eight saves in between the pipes for the Huskies.

The Huskies are back in action on Wednesday, February 24 when they host Iona at home in a 3:00 p.m. match.